Saturday, February 11, 2012

A day at l'institute de Francais

A day at l'institute: Up at 7. Out the door at 8 or so. A 20-minute walk to school, up the killer 300steps. Then a fine French petit dejeuner of coffee, pastries, yogurt, and bread.

Then on to class. Ten students per class. I'm in "high intermediate," believe it or not, and Carolyn is in "lower advanced." maybe 90 minutes in class, with constant back and forth with a truly amazing teacher who manages to make the whole thing fun. Then on to time on the lab, or work on basic social situations (at the restaurant, store, meeting a friend in the street, etc.) At least an hour in the "laboratoire," the language lab. At 1 pm we have lunch with the other advanced students. There is a teacher at each table, who makes sure we speak only French and facilitates the conversation. Quite well-prepared food Then on to more class, perhaps a discussion of a clip of TV news, and then attendance of the truly scarry part of the course, the "expose" where we have to talk for 15 minutes on a topic of our choice (in French, of course) and then respond to questions. I've seldom been at a loss for words, but the words have always been in English. Classes are over at 4:45; there is a 15-minute tea time. Then home, usually after a beer at "Chez Betty's." We originally thought we'd be going onto Nice for dinner, going for evening strolls, etc. Turns out we get home, throw the equivalent of a Stauffers in the microwave, drink some wine, do our homework (just a half hour or so) and go to bed. The day is pretty tiring. Somewhere in there we tend to our email, do our blog, etc. Our apt is lovely, with an amazing view of the harbor. Villefranche is beautiful. But it's been really cold -- colder than Maine on several days. Supposed to warm up a bit next week. A good thing since the wind chillhas been been well under freezing.

I'll try to get some pics up tomorrow. It's too late to fiddle and I need to go to bed